Finch - A Robot for budding computer scientists

Such is the progress computer science has made, and indeed computer science education, that the time is upon us for young students to be taking robots home to work on as their homework assignments. From the get-go, too. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Finch, a robot developed to make learning more engaging for novice computer science students.

flinch robot

Developed by the good people at Carnegie Mellon University, Finch is a specially designed robot that students can work on for assignments and a lot more. To make this clearer to ex-computer science students from back in the day - do you remember how you were told to go back home and write your first program to make the computer say "Hello World"? Well, imagine if you weren't confined to just using a boring "cout" statement, and could actually make a robot say hello instead! That's what Finch is all about.

Finch looks like a cross between a fish and a bird. It isn't too expensive, at $99, considering it comes fitted with a temperature sensor, accelerometer, LED lights and speakers that can all be toyed around with by students. Part of the reasoning behind giving students a live robot to work with is that it makes their work more engaging, and provides incentive to do more without being pushed to do so. What's more, Finch is incredibly easy to set up, requiring no tedious driver installations. It's plug-and-play. Plug it into your USB slot and get to work!

Finch could well be one of the greatest educational implements created for computer science students, making education more fun and interesting, and doing so with a relatively low price tag. Great stuff.

flinch robot 1

flinch robot 2

Via: CMU/Sciencedaily